22nd February 2026
Last year we did some work with the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside (The Wildlife Trust for short) on creating habitat for willow tit. This task is partly a continuation of that work but also a continuation of our work to extend the reed beds at Doffcocker Lodge LNR.
Willow tits have been present at Doffcocker, to some degree, for a number of years but not in any significant numbers. Willow tit’s, including sub-species, have an extensive range covering Europe and other sub-arctic areas with estimated numbers of 175-253 million. However, since the 1970s the population sizes of these birds in the UK has fallen by around 83% and were Red-listed in in 2022. Habitat deterioration is thought to be the main cause of these changes; competition from other similar species and predation could also be a factor.
So, what does willow tit conservation involve? Willow tit’s like to create nest holes in rotten trees in wet willow carr and fen like habitats. But there aren’t enough rotten trees around for them. To give them a hand we took some old, dead branches and attached them to living trees, partly burying the ends of the branches in the ground. Over time the attached branches will rot and soften and the willow tits will be able to excavate nest holes in them. The photo at the top of the page shows a willow tit and the nest it created at Doffcocker a few years ago.
So, that’s the background on willow tits, and there are photos below from that task as week as today’s task. The work to extend the reed beds involved cutting back the willow. You can find more information on our reed bed work on these posts from previous years.
